Want a sarsaparilla in the 'Old Pueblo'? Head to Tucson

On a local television station, when the weatherman notes the temperatures around the state, he frequently points out the temperature at the "Old Pueblo." It appears to be Tucson or near there. Can you enlighten us?

You're new to these parts, ain'tcha, stranger?

Are you one of those tenderfeet wearing big furry chaps and nickel-plated six-shooters who ties up his palomino with the silver-studded saddle and goes into the saloon and orders a sarsaparilla and then beats the bejabbers out of anybody who makes fun of him?

Actually, I'm not exactly 100 percent sure what sarsaparilla is, but I do know from old Westerns that if you make fun of someone in big furry chaps with nickel-plated six-shooters and a palomino with a silver-studded saddle who has ordered one, it's a good way to get your lights punched out, even after you hit the sarsaparilla drinker over the head with a saloon chair.

Anyway, Tucson was founded in 1775 as the Presidio San Agustin de Tucson.

A presidio was a walled city, and Tucson was a variation of a Native American word meaning "Place Where You Can Get Really Good Mexican Food, But You Can't Find the Restaurant Because You Get Lost Because Your Daughters Are Yapping at Each Other and Won't Give You Directions."

Or something like that.

Over time, the settlement became known as the Pueblo de Tucson, "pueblo" being a Southwestern Spanish word for "village."